Respiratory distress may be brought on by the onset of an epidemic of an infectious agent in an otherwise healthy population. Respiratory distress can be caused by several disease states, including, but, not limited to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (or “SARS”) and Avian Influenza (“Bird Flu”). Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (or “SARS”), a serious form of pneumonia resulting in respiratory distress and sometimes death, has become an emerging epidemic threat. Every new case of SARS and/or Avian Influenza reported still has the potential to spark another outbreak and even worse, a global pandemic. The most characteristic symptoms of SARS include fever, cough, difficulty breathing and/or other respiratory symptoms. In most cases, supportive care such as the use of supplemental oxygen, chest physiotherapy, and/or mechanical ventilation is needed. Avian Influenza is another emerging epidemic threat that results in severe respiratory distress with an even faster onslaught of symptoms.
Respiratory distress, among other symptoms, includes an impaired ability of the patient to maintain efficient oxygenation. Regardless of the epidemic or infectious agent, however, the respiratory discomfort of critically ill persons that is associated with these disease conditions can be eased, and in many cases recovery hastened, by connecting the patient to a ventilator. Conventionally, to ease impaired respiration, a patient is sedated and mechanically ventilated using either pressure or volume ventilation.
A typical ventilator operates either by forcing pressurized gas (as in a positive-pressure ventilator) into the lungs or by expanding the chest cavity of the patient to draw gas into the lungs (as in a negative-pressure ventilator) under a pre-determined and operator input schedule of gas composition, pressure, and flow pattern.
Currently, conventional ventilators employ microprocessors to control ventilation parameters and to contain pressure and flow measurement transducers, which provide electrical data (via analog-to-digital converters) to the microprocessors for display of monitored parameters and for alarm activation or alert conditions.
In addition, conventional ventilators require either the use large fabrication machinery with a complicated set-up to produce the various metal parts or advanced tooling and molding processes that are necessary to produce highly durable plastic parts. As new features and ventilating modes are added, the complexity of operation increases as the existing controls and display areas are burdened with the requirement of facilitating input and display of the new features. Thus, conventional ventilators are complex devices and are costly to manufacture and operate.
In addition, conventional ventilator systems are designed to handle a wide range of patient conditions. For example, a patient in the intensive care unit of a hospital typically is overcome by a number of disorders or disease states, in which the body systems are in danger of failing. The intensive care unit must also be able to handle a wide range of patients with a wide range of complaints, including surgery, trauma, heart disease, infection, etc. Thus, conventional ventilators have a large number of operational modes, produced by a complicated set of components, requiring a skilled technician to set up the system.
Therefore, what is needed is a ventilator that has physical and operational simplicity. What is also needed is a ventilator that is manufactured with materials that are readily available. What is also needed is a ventilator that can be fabricated with simpler, low-cost tooling and methods.
In addition, what is needed is a ventilator that is capable of responding to respiratory distress brought on by an infectious agent in an otherwise healthy population. What is also needed is a ventilator that is capable of responding to varying patient needs. What is also needed is a ventilator that is capable of meeting the needs of ARDS patients ranging from a critical state until the patient can be safely weaned from the ventilator.
What is also needed is a ventilator that can be manufactured easily and cost effectively at any time the onset of a respiratory epidemic is detected, in scalable volumes.
In addition, what is needed is a ventilator that can be manufactured in any location quickly, prior to the peak period of the epidemic. What is also needed is a ventilator that can ease the burden on ventilator resources in certain communities.